"Racism Is Over", You Say?

Jack Anawak says he doesn't know how people can deny what occurred at residential schools.  "It really is questionable to see whether the deniers really believe that or they just want to go through the process of assimilation and forget about the First Nations and Inuit," he said. "It is unbelievable to see that there's still that racism out there." Anawak, a longtime Nunavut politician who attended residential school at Chesterfield Inlet, said there are still people who believe residential schools were good for Indigenous people. 

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The Toronto ombudsman released a report Thursday finding that the city's decision to limit refugees' access to shelter beds for several months last year was anti-Black racism — but the city manager said he does not agree with the report.

The decision to stop allowing refugees access to non-refugee shelter beds was "poorly thought out, planned for, and communicated," Ombudsman Kwame Addo wrote in the report, which includes 14 recommendations for the city.

But in a letter to Addo dated Nov. 26, City Manager Paul Johnson said he would not take action on the recommendations, subject to city council's decision on the report.

"I do not agree with the findings," Johnson wrote.

Johnson's letter marks "the first time in the history of the Ombudsman's office that the Toronto Public Service has rejected my findings and recommendations in their entirety," Addo wrote in his report.

In November 2022, the city decided to stop allowing refugee claimants access to general shelter system beds, the report says.

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So to be clear, Kwame Addo, the Toronto ombudsman, reported (correctly) that this decision to refuse access to city shelters for homeless refugees disproportionately impacted Black refugees and left many of them out on the street, and is a pretty clear case of anti-Black racism and targeted xenophobia. AND he gave recommendations on how to do better.

And our asshole city manager Paul Johnson (whiteass name) just went "No, I'm not gonna accept that fact".

Which is... just deciding that something isn't true because he doesn't like how it looks and doesn't want to acknowledge systemic anti-Black racism.

I fucking hate this shit man. There is no excuse for refusing shelter to people who need it. Let alone refusing shelter to refugees specifically!! And the fact that this disproportionately impacts Black refugees is just that- a fact. Not an opinion that you can just disagree with.

Discarding this report and its recommendations is cold-hearted and further proof that white canadians continue to be anti-Black.